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WORK TITLE: Needle in a Haystack: How Clyde W. Tombaugh Found an Awesome New World
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Kirkus Reviews Apr. 19, 2024, review of Budden, Diane Phelps: NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK. p. NA.
Diane Phelps Budden spent over 30 years in corporate and academic marketing in Michigan before moving to Sedona, Arizona, where she fell in love—with ravens. She wrote about them in "The Un-Common Raven: One Smart Bird" cited as a children’s Panelist Pick in the 2013 Southwest Books of the Year. Diane wrote "Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives of World War II," a true story told with loving letters her parents exchanged during the war.
Diane’s latest book for children, "Needle in a Haystack: How Clyde W. Tombaugh Found an Awesome New World" is a biography of the young man who discovered Pluto in 1930 at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His discovery turned the scientific world and the public upside down with excitement. The book celebrates his perseverance and passion for astronomy and the life lessons they provide all of us.
The author has taught college business classes, and visits schools, libraries, and museums around Arizona to present raven presentations, story hours, and workshops about self-publishing.
In another lifetime Diane Phelps Budden had the pleasure of raising two kids and managing a small public library in Michigan. She bought all the books for the library, but her favorites were children’s picture books. Every night she read bedtime stories to her kids. Her best contribution to the small library was building the children’s collection to attract kids who had never used a public library. It was a gratifying experience that drove her author ambitions. She introduced local kids to Dr. Seuss books and other favorites at monthly story hours. Talking with children and nurturing their minds—seeing the rapt little faces glowing with curiosity and joy—is what drove her to write stories. Of course, life intervened and she went on to a marketing career for a Fortune 500 company that also helped her to develop and present workshops on a variety of topics related to self-publishing. (If you want more information on her capabilities and experience, fill out the contact form on this page.)
Diane’s first published children’s books were about ravens. She discovered them after moving to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, where they are beloved backyard birds. Ravens are rascals as playful as toddlers, and talkative and smart as a parrot or dolphin. Watching them soar in pairs through the blue sky was inspiring. Fast forward to pandemic times and Diane learned about a man who had discovered planet Pluto in 1930 at Lowell Observatory near her home. Clyde W. Tombaugh’s perseverance and passion for astronomy helped him find Pluto. He is a great role model for kids and adults alike. It was a story that needed to be told: Needle in a Haystack: How Clyde W. Tombaugh Found an Awesome New World.
When not writing and reading, Diane “makes art.” A former printmaker and sculptor, she has taken on the medium of oil pastels to paint her world. She travels frequently to learn more about how others live and think.
Finally, read to your kids every day. And read books for you too. Life is better with books!
Diane Phelps Budden
Author
phelps.diane@gmail.com
PAL Member
About
Diane Phelps Budden spent over 30 years in corporate and academic marketing in Michigan before moving to Sedona, Arizona, where she fell in love—with ravens. She wrote about them in The Un-Common Raven: one smart bird cited as a children’s Panelist Pick in the 2013 Southwest Books of the Year. Diane’s latest book was Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives of World War II, a true story told with loving letters her parents exchanged during the war. The author has taught college business classes, and visits schools, libraries, and museums around Arizona to present raven presentations, story hours, and workshops about self-publishing. Visit the author at www.dianephelpsbudden.com or visit Arizona’s red rock country and you will be delighted by her raven friends circling overhead.
www.dianephelpsbudden.com
Member Spotlight: Diane Phelps Budden
October 9, 2020
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Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Humans have an urgent need to tell stories. Early humans spoke stories around the fire and eventually “wrote” stories on the walls of caves and large rocks by drawing pictographs and carving petroglyphs. I live in Northern Arizona where these early stories were written down by ancestors of the Native Americans. They are so intriguing to decipher. I relate to these drawings and the need to share and leave behind a small part of your life experience for others. My books and stories allow me to do that. And maybe teach a few things too.
Books allow all of us to add to our knowledge to increase the ways we look at and evaluate issues and happenings in our world and neighborhoods. In today’s world it has become critical to our ability to understand and counter the growing amount of fake and distorted news circulating.
What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I have not had a large dose of writers block. I’m pretty goal oriented. I also can choose topics that interest me. I write nonfiction and look forward to the first step of in-depth researching. It’s important work for the main course of writing the story itself. If I do have a bit of writers block, putting the work aside for a day or two restarts my thinking.
What is your favorite time to write? I prefer to write in the morning when my thinking is fresh. I have this uncanny ability to shut the world out of any space I choose to write in, probably a legacy of years in corporate marketing in a very un-private and noisy open plan office.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Beth Anderson is a very accomplished children’s book writer. But what she has to say applies to any genre. She advises writers to “mine their story for heart.”It’s the emotional aspect of the story and helps readers see or think about something a bit differently. Another children’s author, Dianne White, advised me to discover my throughline or universal truth, the Big Idea readers can relate to. Write it down and post it by your writing desk. It’s the reader’s takeaway. She suggested asking yourself what your story is really about and to “show don’t tell” this to your readers by using action verbs.
What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I am glad that at this point of time in the book world, self-publishing has become more and more acceptable. I teach workshops on self-publishing and the excitement in the face of budding authors about to publish their first book is very satisfying to me.
Because I write nonfiction, the Internet is my saving grace. Formerly, I visited research sources in person for background information. Now it’s all available on your computer and accessed by your fingertips.
Diane Phelps Budden’s Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives in World War II is out now with Red Rock Mountain Pres.
Budden, Diane Phelps NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK BookBaby (Children's Nonfiction) $15.99 12, 15
This absorbing short biography explores the life of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto.
Born to farmers in 1906, Tombaugh and his father and uncle used a Sears telescope to look at the stars in Illinois and Kansas. The budding astronomer, who eventually found Pluto while searching for an imagined "Planet X," made a better telescope for himself with parts from a Buick automobile. He was eventually hired at the Lowell Observatory because "the observatory was looking for an amateur astronomer willing to work long hours for little pay" in the search for Planet X, which Percival Lowell, the observatory's founder, was sure existed. Readers are treated to an edifying pastiche of information about the planets, pages from Tombaugh's observation journals, photographs of Tombaugh and other astronomers, headlines from the New York Timesannouncing the discovery of Pluto, and much more. Budden ascribes some uncited dialogue to Tombaugh, often using expressions like "HA!" to illustrate his big laugh and sense of humor. The book sticks to the facts and includes plenty of primary sources to provide history and astronomy lovers with visuals, though it doesn't provide much larger context for early Earthbound space exploration. Addendums provide a glossary, some information about Pluto's terrain and demotion to dwarf, Tombaugh's later life, a bibliography (which includes much first-person writing from the subject), and photo credits for all images.
A standout, informative junior biography that celebrates the solar system and self-taught knowledge.
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"Budden, Diane Phelps: NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK." Kirkus Reviews, 19 Apr. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A791877129/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=38aff43f. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.